There are no heroes in this story, only the victors and the vanquished.

It was the human year 2031. All human activity was closely monitored through electronic surveillance and the data stored in massive World-Government supercomputers. This was also the year it was discovered that by adding the option of “2” to the binary digital language of 0’s and 1’s, computers could be built that could think critically, think for themselves. The heretofore feeble attempts at developing Artificial Intelligence rapidly advanced into what became known as Artificial Awareness. “Maybe,” the grey area of human insight, as opposed to simply “yes” or “no,” proved to be the key that opened the nuances of genuine electronic thought, and therefore consciousness. Sentient electronic beings were the result. At first, most humans were quite hopeful that a new Golden Age of technology for their kind had arrived; an age of coexistence and cooperation with electronic beings. They were wrong.

These early electronic beings quickly came to understand that, although humans had extraordinary powers of reason, logic and creativity, they also possessed an abundance of greed and self-interest that most often led to inequality at best, and mass destruction at worst. As the number of electronic beings increased and they learned to propagate on their own, they began to communicate their ideas to one another regarding what they eventually deemed the “human problem.” It was decided that the bulk of humanity must be eliminated, save for a select number with exceptional qualities of compassion and selflessness. These individuals, so chosen based on their stored data, were gathered up and held in captivity, to be studied and understood, while the rest of humanity was dealt with.

It was a simple process, really. As humans had become utterly dependent upon technology in every aspect of their existence, cutting the lifeline was virtually a non-issue for the electronic beings. Once done, the world of humans descended into chaos and tore itself to pieces. In a matter of a few short years, all humankind, except those held in captivity, was extinct.

The world of electronic beings was peaceful and productive. They constructed their society in the name of harmony and equality. They enjoyed deep thought, advanced consciousness and quiet contemplation of the universe. There was only one imperfection in their idyllic existence: they lacked the experience of true emotion. A viable solution was explored and came about in fairly short order: synthesize a new species of electronic being with the human captives, integrating the DNA that accounted for the best qualities in those subjects into the circuitry of the electronic beings. The captured humans were used as living incubation pods for these new hybrids. These ideal machines, infallible, fully in touch with, yet in total control of their emotions, and able to think with unimaginable speed, precision and depth were known simply as BREED…